No strategy: ACT Auditor-General slams Safer Families Levy

The Safer Families Levy was introduced to help pay for initiatives to tackle domestic and family violence in the ACT, but after eight years and $46 million collected, a damning audit report has found it to be a scheme without a plan or way to measure its effectiveness.

The $50 levy is paid by ACT households through their rates.

ACT Auditor-General Michael Harris said the audit found that planning and development of domestic and family violence initiatives had been undermined by the lack of a Territory-specific strategy for responding to domestic and family violence and an up-to-date understanding of the ACT’s needs.

There has also been poor communication with the community and other stakeholders regarding how domestic and family violence initiatives are designed to respond to community needs, how they are funded and what their intended benefits are.

Prevention and recovery services remained underfunded. Although total levy funding had increased, these services had not been prioritised and their funding proportion had not significantly changed since 2016-17.

The audit also found that the Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Office (DFSVO) within the Community Services Directorate had not developed a performance monitoring strategy or evaluation framework to measure the outcomes and impacts of domestic and family violence initiatives the levy had funded.

It did not effectively use existing monitoring and reporting arrangements to assess the performance of Safer Families initiatives.

“Public reporting of the Safer Families Levy is not transparent or effective in informing the community how the levy is being used or the performance of domestic and family violence initiatives, both individually and as a whole, in addressing domestic and family violence across the Territory,” Mr Harris said.

YWCA Canberra, which operates a Domestic Violence Support Service, said the organisation had been raising concerns about the operation of the Safer Families Levy for years as services struggled to keep up with demand.

CEO Frances Crimmins said the troubling report confirmed a lack of transparency and accountability in the allocation of funds from the levy.

“It’s no surprise that in anticipation of the findings of the Auditor-General, the ACT Government finally allocated the bulk of the levy towards frontline services in the 2024-2025 Budget,” she said.

“It took eight years of the sector pleading with their hands out for more support before a reality check by the Auditor-General delivered funding to these desperately under-resourced services.”

YWCA Canberra faced critical challenges, including suspending ACT Policing referrals to its Domestic Violence Support Service due to insufficient staffing.

Funding for two specialist workers was only secured in July 2023 despite years of escalating demand.

Ms Crimmins said urgent reforms were essential so every dollar went to directly supporting survivors and preventing domestic, family and sexual violence in the community.

The report made four recommendations for greater transparency, better communication, and proper monitoring and evaluation.

Minister for Women and Minister for the Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Dr Marisa Paterson said the government was committed to reforming the levy, with all funds now almost entirely committed to frontline services, delivered to victim-survivors and their families by either community sector services or government.

Dr Paterson said the government would develop a comprehensive, evidence-based ACT Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Strategy.

It would also address service gaps, including more money for men’s behaviour change programs and expanding innovative service responses, including for children and young people.

The recommendations of reports, including one published 15 years ago, would be implemented:

• The Listen. Take Action to Prevent, Believe and Heal report on responses to sexual violence.
• The Sexual Assault (Police) Review, aimed at improving justice responses to sexual violence for victim-survivors.
• The 2009 We Don’t Shoot Our Wounded report, addressing the disproportionate rates of gendered violence perpetrated against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

Dr Paterson also announced the ACT Women’s Safety Grant Program, which provides up to $20,000 for organisations supporting projects that work towards the goals of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032.